The successful preparation of multiple dishes using combination cooking techniques. Organization and preparation to be used to ensure a complete dish is ready to serve at once and no parts of the dish are left to sit before service.
Sanitation and Safety
This week we will be using chicken so the normal sanitation and cooking procedures apply. Outside of this factor, there aren't any special considerations beyond regular kitchen safety and sanitation.
Information
This week we will be preparing the following dishes:
- Braised lamb shanks with parsnip purée, roasted vegetables and mint sauce
- Chicken blanquette with herbed potato gnocchi and buttered green beans
- Beef Bourguignon with pappardelle (large fettuccine) in herb butter and glazed carrots
- Coq au vin with broccoli almondine and chateau potatoes
The beef bourguignon will require marinating before stewing, so it is important to prepare the marinade ahead of time. The meat should be cut into equal pieces to ensure even cooking throughout the dish and then placed into the marinade, covered, and placed into the refrigerator to sit - the longer the better, up to several hours.
Coq au vin is a chicken dish which will be simmered in a combination of chicken stock and red wine after being browned in a pan with clarified butter. We also add brandy and flambé the chicken to enhance the flavour characteristics of this dish.
Practical
The braised lamb shanks require approximately 2 hours to cook, so we start on them first. The lamb shank is seared in a braising pot on all sides until golden brown. We add bay leaves, garlic, rosemary and seasonings, along with red wine and broth to come approximately 2/3rds the way up the meat. This mixture is brought to a simmer and covered, then placed in the oven to cook. Once done, the shank is removed and the jus is strained and thickened just slightly, at which point the dish is ready for service. The parsnip purée is prepared by boiling potatoes and parsnips in separate pots until tender. They are then passed through a food mill to mash and combine them. Butter, cream, and seasoning is blended in to finish the dish. The mint sauce is a combination of vinegar, sugar and chopped mint. They are combined and placed in a pan to heat briefly - the purpose is not to overly cook the mixture and ruin the colour of the mint, but to warm it up enough to allow easier blending of the ingredients flavours.
The roasted vegetables are prepared per our previous recipes.
For the chicken blanquette, we briefly cook the chicken in a pan while avoiding cooking long enough to get any colour on the meat. We then place the chicken in a sauce pan along with carrot, celery, onion pique, and a boquet garni and then cover with cold stock. The mixture is brought to a boil, skimmed, and then simmered for approximately 30 minutes. We remove the chicken from the stock and strain the stock, adding a roux to prepare a velouté sauce. We then add a liaison (egg yolks and cream) to thicken the sauce further. The chicken is sliced and warmed in the sauce and then served.
We prepare the gnocchi and green beans per our previous recipes.
The beef bourguignon marinade is a mixture of garlic, onions, carrots, parsley, a bouquet garni, peppercorns, salt and red wine. We cut the beef into appropriate sized cubes of equal size and place them in the marinade to soak under refrigeration. Once completed, we remove the meat from the marinade and drain it, while straining and setting aside the remaining marinade to be used later. The beef is then dredged in flour and sautéed in oil until browned. We add tomato paste and cook briefly, then add the marinade, quartered tomatoes and brown stock to cover the meat. This is covered and cooked in an oven until the meat is tender - time will depend on the quality of meat being used. Once done, the meat is removed from the sauce and the sauce is strained, discarding the solids. Quartered mushrooms are sautéed in butter and added to the meat and sauce, and pearl onions are boiled and added. The mixture is simmered for 10 minutes to blend the flavours and is then ready to serve.
Pasta and carrots are prepared per our previous recipes.
The coq au vin is prepared first by fabricating the chicken into 8 pieces. The pieces are dredged in seasoned flour and then browned in a pan with clarified butter. Once browned, we add brandy to the pan and ignite to flambé the chicken. Once the flame dies, we add a bouquet garni, garlic, red wine and chicken stock which is brought to a boil and then reduced to simmer. The pan is covered and the chicken cooked until tender. While the chicken is simmering, we sauté bacon and onions in another pan until the fat from the bacon has rendered and the onions are tender - at this point we add mushroom caps and cook briefly until tender. Once the chicken has cooked, it is removed from the pan and the sauce's consistency is adjusted with a beurre manie, then it is strained and seasoned. The bacon, onion and mushroom mixture is spooned on to a platter with the chicken placed on top, and sauce ladled over the dish. We prepare croutons to serve with the dish as well.
Broccoli almondine and chateau potatoes are prepared per our previous recipes.
Personal Observations
This week was full of incredibly hearty and flavourful dishes. The combination cooking method lends itself to dishes in which the flavours are very blended, making each bite a satisfying one. Beyond that, it allows the use of lesser cuts of meat which will become tenderized in the slow cooking process of stewing or braising. All of our dishes were very flavourful and tender, I had no complaints about our dishes this week.
Chef's Observations
For the most part this week Chef was very happy with our work. The braised lamb shank dish turned out well and was also presented well. For our chicken blanquette, the sauce was a good colour but the flavour was slightly overpowered by the aromatics used in the preparation. Our gnocchi were the appropriate texture and flavour, but were not quite round enough. Otherwise, the dish was very good in presentation and flavour.
The beef bourguignon dish was very good flavour wise, although the sauce was not quite the deep red colour Chef wanted. The pappardelle and glazed carrots were both very good. Our coq au vin dish was very good, the sauce was the right colour in this instance although was a little light on the flavour of the wine used to prepare the dish. The presentation and the broccoli were good, although the potatoes were slightly overdone. Overall a good dish with a few adjustments that needed to be made.
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